Reborn Short Stories & Mistress Regret Novels

The year my dad went broke, I was sent to live with billionaire heir Jace Blackwell. We grew up together. When he had a fever, he clung to me, face buried in my arms. When he got yelled at, he sprawled across my lap and sulked. And when another boy wrote me a love letter, Jace pinned me down and kissed me—shaking, jealous, possessive. Everyone thought we were the perfect couple. Then, on the day we were filling out our early college applications, a sharply dressed man burst into the classroom and shoved me to the floor. He grabbed eighteen-year-old Jace, his eyes bloodshot. "Jace! Look at me! I'm you ten years from now! Don't go to the same college as Nadia. She's not the one you love. It's Faye!" Faye Whitmore. The broke new girl. Eighteen-year-old Jace stared at that identical face, stunned. Then his expression went dark. "What the hell are you talking about? The only person I love is Nadia! I don't care who you are. Touch her again, and I'll kill you!" He rushed over and pulled me into his arms. He was shaking. I gave a bitter smile. No one knew. I was from ten years in the future, too. And twenty-eight-year-old Jace wasn't lying. By then, I wasn't the girl he loved anymore.

After the 100th failed fertility treatment, my husband, who had been previously diagnosed with a low sperm count, spoke coldly. “Lucy is very fertile. She gets pregnant after our first time, unlike you. You just can’t conceive.” Lucy was my adoptive sister. While holding her hand, he laid out three options for me. I could either ignore their affair and retain my title as the CEO’s wife, take the ten million dollars and disappear, or walk away with nothing at all. The whole town knew how proud I was. They also knew how deeply I loved him. They surely expected me to be mad with jealousy and choose honor over compromise. But I neither cried nor made a scene. I calmly slid the check back across the table. “The child will call me Mom. I’ll stay and be Mrs. Carter.” After all, this was my third time to live such a life. The first time, I chose to leave with nothing but my dignity. The second time, I took the money, but had to live in shame. Both decisions ended in tragedy. For the third time, perhaps three of us could just... make it work.

I went on a graduation trip with my boyfriend, Marcus Hale, only to have my shameless roommate, Vanessa Quinn, tag along. On the way to Rybia, our plane was caught in violent turbulence and plunged toward the Egete Ocean. Because of a malfunction, only half the oxygen masks dropped. The spiteful Vanessa snatched the oxygen mask meant for a Rybian socialite, Layla Al-Farouq. Unable to stand by, I shared mine with the woman, saving her life. After the emergency landing, her powerful oil tycoon husband, Khalid Al-Farouq, adopted me as his goddaughter out of gratitude, while throwing the vicious Vanessa into the Kibera Slums. Later, I married Marcus, but on the day we went skydiving, he suddenly unbuckled my parachute and shoved me from ten thousand meters above, leaving me to crash into nothing but broken flesh. "If you hadn’t meddled and saved that old woman, my darling Vivi would still be alive!" Only then did I realize the two of them had been betraying me all along. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the exact moment the plane first took off.

Cleo Carrington used to be Northvale's brightest spark—wild, fearless, impossible to pin down. And then she married Damian Joubert. The most controlled, rigid heir in their world. Damian ran like a machine. Perfect standards. Zero slack. And he expected the same from his wife. Cleo loved noise—clubs, music, bodies moving. He had every venue in the city blacklist her. She loved freedom—the blazing Afriyan sun, the northern lights in Icelorn. She raced cars. She jumped out of planes. He took her passport. Shut it all down.

I'm lucky to have Maggie Lambert as my grandmother. She appears in my dreams three times. The first time, she tells me I'll win a 75-million-dollar lottery jackpot. The second time, she tells me I'll marry a gorgeous woman. She then visits me for the third time and says, "Go to the home in the south of the city and burn everything in the basement, Christian." I'm over the moon with excitement, but that day, Nathan Lister, my three-year-old son, suddenly comes down with a high fever and loses consciousness. I decide to take him to the hospital instead of following Grandma's instructions after seeing how worried my wife, Wanda Cooper, is. In that instant, my world completely collapses. I lose 75 million dollars, and the company I founded becomes my assistant Henry Johnson's conglomerate. On top of that, Wanda becomes Henry's wife. I take the matter to court and report it to the police, only to be labeled delusional—everyone looks at me like I'm insane. In the end, Henry sends me straight to a psychiatric hospital. Henry and Wanda come to visit me the last time I'm clear-headed. Wanda cuddles up to Henry in his arms and looks at me, asking, "How much longer do you think he'll live, Henry?" I don't have time to struggle before Henry pulls out my ventilator. I open my eyes again and find that I have been reborn.

I was given a second chance on the day my mate chose another she-wolf over me. In my last life, I fought to keep him. I begged, argued, and stood in his way, only to watch him blame me for everything he lost. On the day of our bonding ceremony, he made me pay for loving him. This time, I didn’t cry. I didn’t beg. When he wanted to take her to the Frost Territory, I packed his bag myself. When she smiled behind his back and called me replaceable, I let her. If he loved her so much, I would step aside. But the day he finally realized I was no longer waiting at the altar, I had already walked into another ceremony, in another pack, beside a man who had never once made me feel second best. My old mate thought I was teaching him a lesson. He was wrong. I was setting myself free.

After my rebirth, I no longer stop my husband, Don Dante Moretti, from taking care of his dead older brother's widow and daughter, Sofia Bianchi and Lucia Moretti. I spent my entire life hoping that he would spare me a glance, after all. Only when I was hugging my son, Leone Moretti's icy corpse while dying in the snow, did I realize just how wrong I'd been. Once I'm reborn, I visit the law firm decisively and turn in my appeal for divorce. "I request to file a divorce with Dante Moretti. I'd like to terminate Leone's and my original identities." A few days later, Leone and I will disappear from Dante's life. Since he wants to stay with Sofia and Lucia, I'll grant his wish.

When my Alpha mate, Xander, wanted to bring Sadie—the pregnant widow of his best friend—into our home, I let him. I even went before the Pack Elders myself and filed to sever our fated mate bond. I set him free to honor the guilt and devotion he felt for her. I did it all because of my last life. In that life, blinded by jealousy, I had coldly refused his request. That refusal led to tragedy. Sadie left our territory alone, miscarried on the road, and was left barren—never able to bear a cub again. And he blamed me for all of it. So when I was the one dying, bleeding out on the birthing bed and begging him to save me, he showed me the depths of his hatred. He coldly pulled the pack healers from my room, leaving our cub and me to die in a pool of our own blood. I can still hear his icy words. "Sadie lost her cub because of you. Now, you pay the price for your cruelty." So this time, I stepped aside. I let him keep his promise to the woman he cherished, and I gave him the bone-deep hatred for me that he so clearly craved. But I never imagined what would happen when I was finally, truly gone from his life. I never expected that the same Alpha who treated me with such cold cruelty would go mad searching for me. That he would tear the territories apart, only to fall to his knees before me, his eyes bloodshot, begging me to come back.

To the public, Maggie Sinise and I are a golden married couple who have lived peacefully with each other for over four decades. But when Maggie is on her deathbed, she grips my hand tightly while pleading to me, "Aaron, if there ever is a next life, please… please let me and Scotty be together…" I feel as though I've gotten struck by lightning. The shock lasts for a long time. But since this is Maggie's death wish, I nod in agreement. "Okay." Upon hearing the answer she's been yearning for, Maggie closes her eyes in satisfaction. What I don't expect is that both of us have actually returned to the timeframe that's set 40 years ago. Just as I'm trying to wrap my mind around the question as to why Maggie has gotten reborn as well, I hear her stating firmly, "I will never marry Aaron! In this lifetime, Scotty is the only man I will ever marry!" I'm not mad at all. I'm just curious about one thing, though. How will Maggie ever rebuild Sinise Group and make it great again without my help this time?

After a car accident left me with amnesia, a woman claiming to be my girlfriend proposed to me in the most heartfelt way. Everyone around me said I'd been waiting for this moment for seven whole years and urged me to just say yes. In my past life, I nodded along without thinking twice. Her childhood best friend, who turned out to be the long-lost biological son of my parents, ended up going with them to Neller City—and completely leapfrogged into a whole new social class. As for me, I followed Estelle Camden back to her hometown and became just some ordinary guy from the countryside. Cooking, doing laundry, taking care of her bedridden father—I did it all, for thirty years straight. But Estelle left to find work in the city just a year after we got married, and she'd only come back once every few years. The money she sent was barely enough to keep a beggar going. It wasn't until I lay wasted away on my deathbed, barely clinging to life, that I finally saw the truth in her cold, calculating eyes. She let out a sigh of relief and confessed, "The couple who came looking for their child back then—they were your real parents. They're worth hundreds of millions. But you? You're so ordinary—what right did you have to that kind of life? So I gave the DNA test to Derek instead. "Derek is handsome and clever. He deserves the good life way more than you do." When she saw the rage burning in my eyes, she just gave a careless little smile. "You know, sometimes I actually felt guilty looking at you. But now, you're finally about to die—so I guess that's one less thing weighing on my conscience." Right after she said that, I coughed up a mouthful of blood and died, seething with regret. When I opened my eyes again, I was back in that hospital bed—and Estelle was asking me to marry her.

I loved the pup my parents adopted so deeply that I cared for him as if he were my own son. At his slightest request, I willingly braved the storm to search the cliff edges for the plant he needed for tomorrow's assignment. Just as I stumbled toward them, battered and disheveled, I heard him secretly call my sister "mama, and call my mate "Dad”. It turned out my beloved Alpha mate had been cheating all along. He said it was too early for us to have pups, then turned around and started a family with my own sister. And my parents had known all along. They even wanted to force me to step down from my Luna position. The pup I cherished like my own heart cursed me with the most vicious words. Looking at them, I laughed through my tears. They didn't know I was already dead. The Moon Goddess had shown mercy—if I could receive one genuine declaration of love within these seven extra days, I could return to life. But they all wished for my death. I granted their wish. So why did they all regret it when the pack enforcers asked them to identify my body?

On the day I married Vera Barrymore, her precious first love got drugged and woke up missing a kidney. Vera disappeared for three days. When she came back, she brought Sebastian Cooper home with her, freshly diagnosed with depression. I swallowed my heartbreak and agreed to help her take care of him. I had to coax him to sleep every night and feed him one spoonful at a time. It wasn't until she asked me to give him one of our children that I finally snapped. That same night, Sebastian slipped me a fatal dose of sleeping pills. By the time Vera found me, I'd already stopped breathing. She held my body and sobbed, and still chose to cover for him. "This is what we owe him. If there's a next life, I swear I'll make it up to you." When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day Vera first asked if I'd agree to help her take care of Sebastian.

I grew up alongside another vampire noble heir, Kael. Because of an important alliance between our families,we were betrothed when we were very young. For as long as I can remember, Kael was my protector. He was loyal to me. From childhood, he treated me as his future wife. I believed we would stay together forever. Until the day he brought a human blood servant before me. “Elena. I am calling off the engagement. The one I have always loved is Sylvia.” I refused to accept it. I would not believe he had stopped loving me. In the end, our parents resolved everything for us. Kael returned to my side. I never imagined the truth, that he married me only for revenge. The human blood servant who was said to be dead was secretly brought back to life, while my life was drained away to make it happen. She even bore him twins. As for the children I carried for him, he had already killed it. He replaced it with the half blood twins born of that human woman. He killed me with a cross. And watched as my life faded away. After my death, my family was framed by him. Every last one of them was slaughtered. When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day he asked to cancel our engagement. This time, I smiled. I agreed. And chose to walk out of his world. But when I came home to marry the man I truly loved, Kael appeared at my wedding. “Elena,” he asked, his voice breaking, “why don’t you love me anymore?”

On the day of the United Nations meeting, I noticed a new electronic watch on my wife’s wrist. She said it was a gift from her first love to monitor her health. It was a veiled jab, which implied I was not as thoughtful or caring as an outsider. Something felt off, so during her lunch break I secretly checked, and found a bugging device. I reported it immediately, using my official title to cover her wrongdoing. Her first love, however, was now wanted by the authorities. While fleeing, he tragically died in a car accident. My wife said coldly that it served him right, yet treated me with even more care and attention. However, she deliberately leaked my translation files at work, which resulted in me being accused of espionage and taken in for investigation. “Miles, that bug was clearly planted by you. You were jealous of Ash and wanted him dead!” “I truly regret giving up Ash to marry someone as malicious as you. You should go to hell and atone for him!” When I opened my eyes again, I was back there once again on the day her first love gave her that watch. I did not interfere this time. I simply signed my name on the divorce papers.

After my partner, Kael Arden, and I decided to hold our mating ceremony, his childhood sweetheart, Mira Frost, suddenly left on her own, heading to the dangerous border overrun with rogue wolves. On the very day our mating ceremony was to take place, news came that she had died in an accident. Kael showed no reaction. He still followed the steps of the ceremony and completed the mutual marking with me. However, on the day I was heavily pregnant and about to give birth, he forced an entire bottle of silver water down my throat and locked me in the basement. As I died in agony, I still heard his cold voice beside my ear. "Mira’s death was all because of you! You couldn’t stand her, so you deliberately forced her to the border! You have to pay the price!" When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to seven days before the mating ceremony... Since he loved Mira that much, I would choose to make them whole in this life.

The floodwaters were about to swallow our home, yet my wife—the captain of the rescue team—took every last member with her to save the man she had always loved. That was when I realized she had been reborn too. In our previous life, the moment she heard I was in danger, she had rushed to save me without hesitation. Because of that, she missed his call. He fell into a depressive episode and took his own life. But before he died, he posted online, accusing me of bullying him throughout our school years—and of stealing the woman he loved. After his death, the internet turned on me. I became the target of relentless harassment. My wife said she didn't blame me. She treated me as she always had. Yet, on what would have been his birthday, she broke both my limbs—and my mother's as well. Then, in front of his grave, she shoved the two of us into a folded bathtub. "If I'd known you bullied Nathan all those years, I would never have married you! You could swim, yet you deliberately called me to save you. It's all your fault—Nathan wouldn't have killed himself otherwise!" I listened to my mother's agonized cries as despair swallowed me whole. And then I died. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of the flood. This time, she could save her beloved. I won't stand in her way.

The cocktail hour had just ended when I picked up a video call in the bridal suite. It was Ethan, three years from now. By then, time‑travel tech had matured enough to let him contact me three years into the past. After enough specific details, I finally believed it. The man on the screen really was Ethan, three years older. I rubbed my aching ankle and pouted at him through the screen. "Ethan, smiling at all these guests is exhausting. But the second I remember I actually married you today, I'm happy all over again." "We're still happy three years from now, right?" He was leaning back against a headboard, and he didn't answer. His face was flat and unreadable. Then I heard it: a woman's voice from his end, low and breathy, asking to be kissed. I froze for a second, then covered my mouth and laughed. "Is that future me? In broad daylight? Get a room." Ethan turned the camera into the bed. My maid of honor was lying there, naked, sprawled across his chest. Her body was covered in hickeys. He looked straight at me as I started to break, and his voice didn't shift at all. "As soon as the reception ended, I told you I had a client meeting. I went to her room instead." "Jo, now you know what's coming. The guests haven't gone home yet. If you want a divorce tonight, you can have one. Up to you."

When the Lycan King was attacked by rogues, my mate—the Gamma warrior and Head of the Royal Guards—was busy comforting his sulking first love. Instead of setting off the silver distress flare in my hand, I used my heavily pregnant body as a meat shield to protect the King. Because in my past life, I fired that flare. Rowan came, saved the King, but abandoned his first love, leading to her death. Rowan was hailed as a hero. But on the very day I gave birth, he tossed me into the Feral Pit. When I asked him why in absolute agony, he just glared at me coldly. "The King had plenty of guards! You fired that flare because you're a greedy bitch who only cares about wealth and power!" "If you hadn't set off that flare, Yara wouldn't have died! I will make you suffer a hundred times what she went through!" In the end, feral beasts tore me apart. They even devoured the pup right out of my womb. Then, I opened my eyes. I was back on the day of the rogue attack.

The day the campus queen got caught shoplifting at the convenience store, I was reborn. This time, instead of pulling her into the back room for a private talk, I called the cops without a second thought. The cops locked up my childhood sweetheart, the campus goddess Samantha Creighton, for fifteen days. During those fifteen days, I cut every tie between us. After that, I dodged her completely. Whenever she organized a class gathering, I fell deathly ill. Whenever she traveled to the southern coast, I flew to the far northwest. When she went to a reunion, I got sick. When she went home, I went abroad. When she returned to school, I dropped out. I avoided every situation that might bring me near her. In my past life, I loved her for twenty years. But in all that time, she never once treated me with any real kindness. I finally found out why during a fire at our house. I held her and our daughter outside the window, shielding them until rescue came. They got out without a scratch. But my entire body was burned beyond recognition. Then my own daughter—the one I raised with everything I had—pulled her mother's one true love close and said, "He deserves this. Back then, he tore you and Mom apart. He should die for it." My wife stood beside them and sobbed uncontrollably. "I almost thought I'd never see you again." I died full of hatred. Now that I'd been given a second chance… since she loved her first love that much, I'd make sure they could stay together.

I am Carlton Helfer, the most useless alchemy student in Crucible. Whenever I tried to craft pills, I somehow blew up the entire compound to pieces. So, my teacher, Caspian Hemlock, never allowed me to touch a cauldron, and my female peers always took the blame for me. Then, Zephyr Tierra arrived in town. He was a once-in-a-millennium prodigy at pill crafting. He swore he could raise our order to glory, and he loathed worthless trash like me above all else. So, he organized a pill-crafting tournament with my female peers, using me as a negative example every single day. On the day of the Arch-Alchemist’s election, he and my female peers drugged me with a crippling draught and cast me into the Miasma Woods. I died, but my soul stayed. I bound myself to a Zero to Hero System. The system spoke, “Carlton, you have fulfilled the prerequisite: A Wretched Death. The First Alchemist’s Legacy acquired.” When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day Zephyr Tierra arrived in town. This time, when I flicked my finger, Enneaphyllon, an herb extinct for ages, sprouted from my palm. Zephyr’s eyes went wide. “I-Impossible!” I sneered and said, “Don’t you know that a true arch-alchemist doesn’t need a cauldron?” Every herb and every tree in the whole of Crucible was my elixir.